Amazon launches its newest private label, Wickedly Prime

Amazon’s push into the private-label business continued this month, with the launch of its latest brand, Wickedly Prime. Unlike Amazon’s more recent entries in the private label space, such as Happy Belly, Mama Bear and Presto!, Wickedly Prime is the first brand since the debut of Amazon Elements two years ago to make its affiliation with Amazon known.

This represents a strategic shift in how Amazon is approaching its private label business. Instead of making it nearly impossible to tell which brands are made by Amazon, Wickedly Prime embraces its Amazon affiliation.

Not only does it have “Prime” in its name, the boxes feature the iconic Amazon “smile” in the brand’s logo, and the product packaging even states “Distributed by Amazon Fulfillment Services,” notes the e-commerce data measurement firm, One Click Retail, in a new report that analyzed the success of the brand’s launch.

The new Wickedly Prime brand, as the name implies, is exclusive to Amazon Prime members, and targets the “foodie” crowd with offerings similar to what you might find at a Trader Joe’s. This includes Amazon’s own line of snacks, like popcorn, tortilla chips, and soft shell almonds, available in a variety of flavors.

Amazon’s increased efforts in the private label space were first outed in May by The Wall Street Journal. The article detailed the forthcoming brands’ offerings, including those from Wickedly Prime

Wickedly Prime was not the first of the newer private labels to launch. It’s likely that Amazon wanted to test the business and work out the kinks, before slapping its name on the private label items it sells. With the relative success of its earlier launches, however, the retailer now seems ready to make its private label goods more known to consumers.

Still, the launch of Wickedly Prime was a bit under the radar – as with some of its other brands, Amazon didn’t make a big announcement, it just added the products to its website. One Click Retail says the initial products sold well so far, with the top four SKUs reaching over $500 in sales in the first week. The other SKUs each broke $100. While these are not record-breaking numbers by any means, they are “not insignificant for a new product,” notes One Click Retail in its report.

And based on how the other private labels performed, there’s potential for solid growth. Happy Belly, for example, saw its nuts and trail mix sales grow from $20,000 to $265,000 thanks to a series of Alexa deals in November, and a Lightning Deal on December 6th. That’s 5,000 percent growth over the prior month. The ability to promote its own products through its deals platform and, now, its network of connected devices in consumers’ homes, is a lever Amazon can pull at any time.

The retailer seems to know what it’s doing, too. An earlier report from 1010data found that Amazon’s private label brands were taking over market share in their respective categories, including speakers (thanks to Amazon Echo), baby wipes (Amazon Elements), and batteries (AmazonBasics).

Now we’ll see if Amazon will have the same success in the consumer packaged goods space, with its Happy Belly coffees and snacks, Wickedly Good snacks, and Presto! detergents.